The Format Menu in Microsoft Word ® - Including Theme, Columns, Tabs, and Drop Cap

In this part of the Microsoft Word tutorial we give explanations of the various commands accessible via the Format Menu.

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The Format Menu in Microsoft Word

The Format Menu is the fifth menu in our using Microsoft Word tutorial.

Font: This will change the font attributes of either the currently selected text, or any subsequent text, using the font dialogue box.

Paragraph: This command will open the Paragraph dialogue box, allowing you to make changes to either existing text or subsequent text. To change an existing paragraph, select the text you wish to change and then use this command to make the alterations, such as alignment, indentation, and spacing.

Bullets and Numbering: This is a handy command, it creates indented lists with various formats. You can either click the command and then start typing your list (pressing enter for the next line), or you can select some existing text to convert to a list. The listing format options include bulleted, numbered, outline numbered, and other styles.

Borders and Shading: This command allows you to create borders and shading on elements within your Microsoft Word document. The borders and shading can be applied to text, paragraphs, pictures, and more. Columns: The Columns command will split the current document into the number of columns you specify. You can either split the whole page, or just from that point onwards. Tabs: This command allows you to manage tabs, including the alignment, spacing, and whether the tab has a leader or not.
Drop Cap: A drop cap is a letter at the start of a paragraph of text that spans 2 or more rows of text, you will often see a drop cap in a book at the start of a chapter. This tool allows you to either add a drop cap character to your document or change an existing letter (at the start of a sentence) to a drop cap. Text Direction: This allows you to change the text direction of a text object, for example a text box. Change Case: The Change case tool allows you to alter the case of existing text. Options include sentence case, lowercase, uppercase, title case, and toggle case. Background: This changes the background colour (color) of your Microsoft Word document. It also allows you to add watermarks and use different gradient effects. Theme: The themes command will open the theme dialogue box, allowing you to change the theme of your document, including heading style, hyperlinks and background colour (color). Frames: This command opens the Frames dialogue box.
AutoFormat: The AutoFormat feature will format a whole document with preset attributes. Styles and Formatting: This will open the Styles and Formatting toolbar, allowing you create headings, lists and more. Reveal Formatting: Clicking on this will show a dialogue box detailing the format attributes of the selected element. Object: Allows you to make changes to any existing objects within the current document.

see also: File Menu - Edit menu - View menu - Insert menu - Tools menu - Table menu